Departmental Equality

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent by her Department  (a) in total and  (b) on staff costs on promoting equality and diversity in each of the last three years for which figures are available; and how many people are employed by her Department for this purpose.

Parmjit Dhanda: In 2004-2007, the Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) recorded staff costs of £1,951,549 and non-pay spend of £989,022. The EDU was responsible for internal equality policy delivery.
	In July 2007, the EDU transferred to the Race Equality Unit taking seven posts, a pay budget of £319,000 and a non-pay budget of £16,000. The newly formed Race Equality and Diversity Division has a forecast outturn in 2007-2008 of £1,951,549 pay costs (average 34.8 FTE posts) and £989,202 non-pay costs. Due to machinery of Government changes it is difficult for the Department to provide more detail.
	One HEO maintained the workforce equalities taskforce at a cost of £21,286, from July 2006 until the creation of the workforce equalities team in October 2006. These units were established to mainstream equality and diversity within Communities. The workforce equalities team now comprises two HEOs, one full-time and one working 32 hours per week. The Grade 7 team leader post is currently vacant, but assuming the post is filled on a full-time basis the costs for the team would total £74,559 annually.
	The workforce equalities team has an annual allocation of £20,000, of which £8,000 is allocated to the Department's various staff networks. This leaves £12,000 to be spent directly on mainstreaming equality and diversity within Communities.
	Like other Government departments and as part of its commitment to ensuring good practice, Communities also pays for membership of various organisations for benchmarking purposes (e.g. Stonewall, Employers Forum on Disability) costing approximately £13,100 annually.